How compassion stopped a gunman

(AP Photo/David Goldman). Shanique Worthey, right, is embraced by her mother Daphne Morris, while waiting to be reunited with her … Continued

by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

(AP Photo/David Goldman). Shanique Worthey, right, is embraced by her mother Daphne Morris, while waiting to be reunited with her son five-year-old son Skyler Worthey as students from Ronald E.

‘Our weapons are not carnal, they are spiritual.’ This biblical lesson is found in 2 Corinthians. This week, it can also be learned at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, an elementary school outside of Atlanta.

Antoinette Tuff, the school clerk at McNair, is being credited with averting another horrific school shooting. Tuff met the gunman as he entered the school building, and listened to him say “he didn’t have any reason to live, and he knew he was going to die today.” She chose not to meet violence with violence, but spoke compassionately to the gunman, identifying with his pain and loneliness, a feeling she shared that she had as well after she separated from her husband of 33 years. She encouraged the gunman not to give in to despair.

Tuff used the “weapons of the spirit,” not a gun to stop the gunman. “I give it all to God. I’m not the hero. I was terrified,” she said.

Spiritual strength and compassion were the weapons used here, not a physical gun.

Weapons of the spirit, not “carnal,” that is, physical weapons are what we need in life, according to the Bible.

That’s not the way the National Rifle Association sees things, however. In the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the response of the NRA was to commission a report that recommended more guns in schools, not less, including training and arming “willing” teachers.

There is no simple and easy solution to protecting our children in school, as well as in their homes and on the streets, in a society awash with guns.

What Antoinette Tuff’s actions show, however, is the power of spiritual compassion and the courage to live by it in word and deed.

I often ask myself, when we understand what a text like Corinthians is teaching, why isn’t gun control a “Christian” issue? Christian Evangelical Ellen Painter Dollar pondered just that question in a post, “For Christians, Gun Control Should Be a No-Brainer. Why Isn’t It?”

Unfortunately, Painter points out, “When it comes to gun violence, Christians too often either say nothing, or parrot a conservative political position embodied by the NRA and others.” That kind of attitude is, in fact, “nonsense” she writes. “Jesus was crystal clear on the question of whether violence is an acceptable response to violence, on whether arming ourselves with fists or swords or guns is the way to protect ourselves from fists and swords and guns. Nonviolence—turning the other cheek, keeping your sword in its scabbard even under threat, loving your enemy—is a centerpiece of Jesus’s gospel.

Nonviolence. Loving your enemy. That’s a spiritual perspective, drawn from scripture and taught by Antoinette Tuff with her spiritual courage.

An important lesson from this event is that instead of adding more guns to a society already reeling from gun violence, perhaps we should train our school personnel in compassionate and nonviolent communication.

Will such training stop every determined shooter? Of course not. That is why we need far better social policy on guns. Many groups support better policy, like “Moms Demand Action,” a group I support as a concerned mother, grandmother and citizen.

But part of ending the madness of our gun culture is helping to create a different culture, one of kindness instead of meanness.

So many of the great spiritual leaders the world honors, from Gandhi to Mother Teresa to Jesus to the Buddha to the Dalai Lama and more, taught the spirituality of compassion and nonviolence as the best way to end violence and increase peace.

As the Dalai Lama has said, “You must not hate those who do wrong or harmful things; but with compassion, you must do what you can to stop them — for they are harming themselves, as well as those who suffer from their actions.”

Weapons of the spirit can transform hate into compassion, and violence into peace.

“That’s not the way the National Rifle Association sees things, however. In the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the response of the NRA was to commission a report that recommended more guns in schools, not less, including training and arming “willing” teachers.”

A situation like this can go any number of ways, mainly depending on chance. It was good fortune that several positive factors came together at once here:

1 – The guy doesn’t appear to have been murderous, rather he appears to have been attempting to commit suicide by cop,
2 – It may have been more of a cry for help than an attempted crime,
3 – Antoinette Tuff, a brave and loving hero was on hand to take charge of the situation and talk the guy down, and
4 – The cops wisely played along instead of charging in with guns blazing.

We got lucky this time, very, very lucky.

The key factor here is really the mind of the gunman. If the guy really HAD been hell-bent on a murderous rampage like the guy at Sandy Hook, only another armed person would have been able to stop him.

Sandy Hook was different. Adam Lanza was hell-bent on killing. Nothing would have deterred him from his goal other than a fusillade of gunfire – which is how it played out. Do you honestly believe that the school administrators who confronted Adam Lanza did NOT try to talk him out of it? They did and they died and the children they loved also died.
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LukeInVirginia

So do people come on here and run their mouths to strangers just to practice talking in real life, like to get their stories straight so they sound smarter when they talk? I mean nobody believes all their reason and passion – on here – will ever change someone’s mind, do they? It’s like yelling down a hole, but here you don’t even get an echo, just derision or silence.

leibowde84

I disagree. I have had countless valid and valuable arguments/discussions in this forum. As long as people come here with an open mind and don’t start making assumptions about whether their counterparts are liberal or conservative, it usually works out OK.

It’s pretty rare, but I’ve seen it happen, usually when someone is exposed to brand new information they had never considered.

But truly changing someone’s mind is like starting a new diet – it takes a long time. One lunch-special salad isn’t going to have a permanent effect, and likewise, one Internet comments-section debate won’t change someone’s mind.

But by coming here and making your case, you do promote discussion a positive interaction – something today’s political debate severely lacks.

haveaheart

‘I’m not the hero. I was terrified,’ she said.”

She IS a hero. Being a hero means doing something hard DESPITE being terrified. If you’re not frightened, then whatever you’re doing isn’t much of a sacrifice.

Let’s recast that vile NRA message: The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is another person with a loving heart.

itsthedax

Actually, Adam Lanza shot them all on sight.

So, in your world, it is preferable for weapons and ammunition to be readily available to crazed killers, and it is up to schoolteachers to shoot them first in order to protect our children.

Wouldn’t it be better for Adam Lanza and that disturbed young man in Atlanta to not have had easy access to those weapons?

ZZimian

itsthedax responds: “Actually, Adam Lanza shot them all on sight.”

Exactly my point.

“Wouldn’t it be better for Adam Lanza and that disturbed young man in Atlanta to not have had easy access to those weapons?”

Wouldn’t it be better if we had magic wands to make us all better? Your solution will never happen.

ZZimian

Do you honestly believe that the schoolteachers and administrators at Sandy Hook did not have loving hearts?

If a guy like Adam Lanza is hell-bent on killing, only a gun will stop him, nothing else.